Spencer Cocoa Australian-made single origin chocolate

Spencer Cocoa is Australian made, bean-to-bar chocolate produced by Luke & Thea Spencer and a small team dedicated to quality and integrity.

“Our chocolate is made from cocoa beans grown by a small group of farming families on the island of Malekula, Vanuatu. We have worked with these growers for over 10 years now and their cocoa is excellent! Here in Mudgee, we roast, grind, conch and temper the cocoa into lively and beautiful chocolate.”

Enjoy.

Luke Spencer - chocolate maker

In the spirit of reconciliation Spencer Cocoa acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.

We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Follow our chocolate... bean to bar

Spencer Cocoa Chocolate begins life as cocoa beans, grown in a village on the west-coast of Malekula (pronounced mal-e-kOOla), in Vanuatu.

We buy the beans directly from a small group of families, visiting twice per year when the cocoa trees are being harvested.

Our micro-factory in Mudgee produces batches of single origin chocolate from these beans, using a simple process of roasting, grinding and tempering. 

Follow our process below... from Bean to Bar!

If you'd like to find out more please send us a message!

pods & beans 

Harvest is carried out in Autumn and Spring each year by our growers and their families. Cocoa pods are picked from the trees, and cut open out in the field. The wet beans are scooped from the pods into bags to be transported to the fermentery.

fermented & dried

At the fermentery, the wet beans are emptied into large timber boxes... here the natural sweet sap on the bean warms up and starts to ferment, an essential process whereby cocoa beans develop their chocolate flavour. The fermented beans are naturally sun-dried and then bagged ready for shipping. 

 

roast, crack and winnow

We make <20kg small batches of dark (72% cocoa) and milk (42% cocoa) chocolate at our tiny factory in Mudgee NSW. Beans are roasted, then cracked into small pieces (nibs) and winnowed to remove the papery 'husk'.  

grind, temper and mold

The cleaned nibs are then ground in our stone grinder before adding the cocoa butter and sugar (plus whole milk powder for our milk chocolate). The chocolate is then tempered and hand-molded into luscious glossy bars!  

We do not use any nuts or soy lecithin in our factory